Original subtitles

I'm Chris, aka Flamebaster

I'm a chef and I love cooking with fire.

Flamebasting, baby!

And one thing it's taught me is that food and fire is a great way

to bring people together.

And I've been lucky enough to travel the world, cooking and feasting

at some of the coolest places on the planet.

- Man, what you got? Oh!

- But to be honest, I haven't really explored or cooked much

around my own country, Cymru.

In this series, I'm on a journey through Cymru to discover

its food, past, present and future.

Whoa! Wow!

I'll be hooking up with chefs... Nick!

..and local producers... Oh!

..showcasing some top foodie destinations... Whoa!

..and hidden legends who are

striving to protect our food heritage.

And those taking it to the next level.

This time I'm in Rhyl,

where I'll be treating the locals to an unusual kebab...

Let's go! Please go!

..and bringing some Jamaican flavour to the seaside town.

- That is good. That's perfect.

- ANNOUNCER: - The next train to depart on platform two will be the 0948.

- I used to love getting the train every summer as a kid,

always excited on the journey along the coast

for a whole day out in Rhyl.

It's a seaside town that's taken

some knocks in the press over the years.

It was actually voted the worst seaside town in Britain.

But for me, it's pure, happy childhood nostalgia.

I'd be so keen to hit the arcades,

eat fish and chips,

and smash legendary hot, sugary doughnuts.

Yeah!

But this time I'm here for more than memories and fish and chips.

Even though they're delicious.

I'm on a mission to find some banging local produce

hiding in the area.

But first, I've got to taste those delicious doughnuts again,

because I've got a really unusual recipe I'm buzzing to try out.

How long have you been making doughnuts?

- Oh, all my life. - All your life? - Yeah. - Yes, the master!

- Taught from a little girl.

- Doughnuts were introduced to America by the Dutch in the 17th century.

Wow! The smell of Rhyl, baby.

But originally, they didn't have holes

and were stuffed with fruit and nuts.

Hmm!

So, down on the Rhyl seafront,

I'm firing up the barbecue to get my cook on.

I'm going to pimp up some doughnuts with another staple food

of any seaside town that I love.

A beautiful brown crab.

Might sound weird,

but let's go, crab doughnuts.

Look at this beautiful brown crab,

just from down the coast here.

Can't get any fresher. Can't get any more local than this.

I have killed it humanely.

It's a big boy. You can tell it's a boy by this thin flap here.

A wide triangle flap, it's a female.

And it's got massive claws!

I love crab, so let's put it on the fire.

For the crab this big, I'm going around 25 minutes.

Give it a little baste, sherry vinegar and fish stock.

Just a bit more flavour. Love it.

Let's go, doughnuts!

And I know a proper doughnut dough recipe takes time.

Got to prove it overnight. I ain't got time for that.

I've got pre-made doughnut powder.

You can get this mix in supermarkets, and it's pretty much

the same stuff that's used in most doughnut shacks.

It's basically an enriched bread dough that's nice and sweet.

Now, this does need resting for quarter of an hour.

Put a tea towel on it so the seagulls don't get to it.

Now it's less hassle to cook a crab by boiling it in salted water,

but you can't beat cooking it on a barbecue.

The fire will give a subtle but lovely hint of smokiness

to the meat.

And while the big boy's cooling down, let's make a little

devilled butter sauce.

Shellfish and butter are always a killer combination, but adding

cayenne pepper will give the crab doughnuts a little fiery kick.

A dash of fish sauce will give it deep umami flavour.

Whoa!

Funky fish sauce!

To sharpen it up, I add the zest and juice of a lemon.

After taking it off the heat, I shred in some tarragon leaves,

because the aniseedy flavour goes really well with seafood.

Beautiful.

Let that chill to one side, and let's pick the crab.

I'm so excited.

Ooh!

Nice and charred.

Get the legs off.

Now for the body, apply pressure with your thumbs on the back

and it should...

..pop out.

You don't want to be eating these feathery looking gills,

but the body has some juicy white meat to pick.

The head, though, is where the strong, rich,

flavoured brown meat is.

I use a rolling pin to crack open the claws, where the best bite-sized

bits are, and even the thin legs have some gorgeous meat

worth poking around for.

Right then, I picked all the meat I can out of that shell.

Let's get cracking with the doughnuts.

Doughnut dough is very sticky, so I use oil on my hands,

and on every utensil, as I shape a handful into a ball

and slip it into the fryer.

They cook and turn a golden brown fast.

A minute and a half on each side should be plenty.

Get the crab.

A dollop of creme fraiche

in with this cayenne tarragon butter.

It needs a good pinch of salt and some more lemon juice

before I mix it into a lovely, creamy, crabby mixture.

I'm loving that colour. I'm loving the texture.

Let's slice into a doughnut.

Ooh! Beautiful, fluffy inside.

There's no other way but to fully load these beauties.

Woo!

And to finish off, I grate some more lemon zest on the top.

I'm just clapping myself. Because you know what?

I'm loving that crab doughnut. That flavour is going to bang hard.

Let's go for this one.

I don't think there's any way of eating this that isn't messy.

That's cool. Ha-ha!

Mm.

Wow. Phenomenal flavours.

Brown crab is just stunning.

It's sweet. Salty.

Nice tang. The doughnut is cool, crunchy,

fluffy, light.

It's a bit weird eating doughnuts without sugar, but it's awesome.

It's awesome.

Mm!

Although Rhyl is known for its sandy seafront,

it's also surrounded by prime farming land.

So my next stop is a local farm, where they've turned to rearing

a herd of goats.

Feisty animals, but their meat is unbelievably amazing to cook with.

Yo, Sam! - Are you all right? - How are you? - Yeah.

- Sam's in charge of everything on this ultra sustainable,

nature friendly farm that sells directly to customers in meat boxes.

Well, tell me a bit more about what you do here on Glanllyn Farm?

- Oh, yeah, so, um, farming,

trying to farm regeneratively, doing what we can,

making mistakes and learning along the way.

- You farm goats? Why goats?

- Uh, I didn't know what I was letting myself in for!

But we've got these old stone buildings, you know,

originally for livestock.

And I wanted to breathe some life back into them.

And the goats live in half the year.

They're not fair weather animals like the sheep or the heifers

that we have. They just suit the place.

But I just haven't got enough space to keep more goats.

Not without them fighting and head butting.

- They are characters, yeah? - Oh, yeah.

When I thought that they would breathe some life back into place,

I didn't realise they'd actually rule the place.

- CHRIS LAUGHS

So can we go in for a closer look? - Yeah, of course we can.

- I love this little one with the beard. - She's so brave.

- CHRIS LAUGHS

- There you go, this one's our oldest one. She'd be about 12.

- She's the boss? - Yes, she's the matriarch of the herd.

- So what's so good about goat meat?

- Oh, the only thing I can compare it to is venison.

- So a lean meat? - Yeah, a really lean meat.

Healthy. And actually, the goat boxes, they sell out.

- Customers are loving it? - Yeah.

- So it's not just goats you have on the farm. You've got lambs, mutton?

- Yeah, that's right, yeah. So do the lamb boxes.

And then we also do a thing with the mutton, where for every box

that I sell, I then donate the same amount to a food bank in Rhyl.

- Ah, that's so cool. - Yeah, it's kind of like rebelling against

a bit of a broken food system, a centralised food system.

But it's, like I say, it's just me doing my bit. - Nice.

It's nice to give back, yeah? - Yeah.

- Yeah, it's cool. - Trying. Yeah.

- No headbutting! Oi!

THEY LAUGH

- Yeah. Don't know where they get it from!

- THEY LAUGH

These cheeky nannies and billies are a delight to be around.

But this is a cooking programme, and they're also a delight to eat.

Sam has inspired me to push even more locals to try goat meat's

rich and creamy taste.

So it's kebabs for everyone.

For that though, I'll need a lot of bread.

And just off the high street, there's a community training bakery

that supports people facing challenges,

led by master baker Steve.

- We run courses Monday to Friday.

We teach them how to bake and give them some confidence to take

that forward to do it at home. - Ah, that's so cool.

So how long have you guys been baking with Steve?

- Oh, we're on our fifth week. - Fifth week?

What do you enjoy most about baking with Steve?

- I've enjoyed time with my daughter. - Ah, nice.

Right then, I need your help.

I'm going to be setting up a kitchen in the middle of Rhyl high street.

Going to be serving Turkish flatbread with goat mince.

So I need the best dough I can get.

- Well, you've picked the right team here. - Yes.

Start making some dough? - Yeah. - Let's go, let's go, let's go.

Making dough for a Turkish style flatbread is similar to making

a quick pizza dough.

We start off with strong white flour, two teaspoons of dried yeast

for some puff, a teaspoon of caster sugar,

and a good pinch of salt.

Some warm water, and we mix everything together

before adding a little olive oil.

You could do this in a mixer, but I think

you put more love into it when you do it by hand, yeah?

- That's it.

- After kneading for five minutes, we roll into balls.

And to keep them from drying out while they prove,

we drizzle some more oil on them.

So we've still to let the doughs prove for an hour or so, you know,

so that the doughs will be nice and easy to work with.

And it's going to be soft, fluffy and everything you're looking for.

So, yeah, thanks again. See you later? - Yes. - Yeah!

Here we go, then.

This beautiful dough will be the base to spread spiced mincemeat

before it's then cooked in a hot oven.

This traditional Turkish dish usually uses beef or lamb.

But today we're making goat lahmacun.

I'm slap bang in the middle of Rhyl high street.

What a kitchen today. I'm loving it.

It's buzzing, busy, loads of people, even more seagulls flying about.

And today is all about the goat.

Look at this beautiful goat meat from Sam.

I hate seagulls.

I'm very anxious.

I've never been this nervous about a cook.

I am going to put the goat meat back down there just in case

the seagulls come. Let's toast some spices.

Get the pan nice and hot.

God, these seagulls are noisy!

I thought the seagulls in Caernarfon were bad.

Pan nice and hot.

In with the spices. We've got fennel, caraway,

cumin, coriander.

Releasing all that beautiful flavour in the oils.

Just before they burn, I take them off the heat to grind them down.

I add plenty of garlic paste and a favourite ingredient of mine,

Turkish pepper paste.

But supermarket harissa paste would do fine as well.

I chop a couple of chillies and a handful of coriander,

and mix them in with some olive oil.

The smell from this is already spectacular, and drawing in a crowd.

How's it going? You OK?

Are you guys from Rhyl? - Stoke, we're from. - Stoke?

- Rhyl. - Rhyl? Yes. We love Rhyl.

OK. Just going to let this chill now for a good half an hour.

While the mince is mingling with the spices,

I'm going to make a salad.

But I can't wait to use my fire oven,

so I drizzle olive oil over a few peppers and tomatoes,

and in they go until they start to blister beautifully.

Yeah!

Salad doesn't have to be boring.

Char your peppers, char tomatoes,

just gives it another dimension, you know?

Yeah. And let that chill.

I love Rhyl, yeah. I used to come here every summer,

down this street, waste so much money in the arcades,

smash doughnuts, candyfloss, inja roc.

After they've cooled down, I can chop up these juicy veg

and throw them in a bowl with chopped onions,

a sprinkle of salt,

a squeeze of lemon,

and a good handful of chopped parsley.

There you have it. Onion and parsley salad with charred peppers,

charred tomatoes. Easy.

Right then, flatbread time.

I just roll them out to make a thin base.

Then I spread the beautiful spicy goat mix all over it.

One swoop.

In she goes. Yeah!

Puff, puff, puff! Straight away. Amazing dough!

Woo!

Lahmacum cooked in 60 seconds.

Got to go kebab style with it.

For me, it's always garlic mayo and chilli sauce.

With a few handfuls of the salad across the middle,

another squeeze of lemon,

before rolling it all up into

something that could just about fit in my mouth.

Yes!

CROWD LAUGH

- What about us?!

- That's crazy good. Amazing dough, charred on the outside.

Still soft. That goat's mince. Juicy.

If you've never tried goat before, trust me, you're going to love it.

Complemented with all the spices, all the love.

Rhyl in a bite.

Awesome goat. Awesome vibes.

As the Use Your Loaf bakery crew arrive,

it's time to go into full factory mode

to make stacks of these kebabs...

Slide it in here.

..before we open the floodgates for the curious locals.

Let's go!

Free goat! Or free kebabs - don't say goat.

OK, don't say goat. Free kebabs! Free flatbreads! Ah!

Wow, you guys are worse than the seagulls.

- Very nice. - How's the taste? - Oh, fantastic. Thank you.

- Spicy, nice, and filling.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Look at that. - Oh, yeah!

- That's got a kick!

A kick!

I'm going in for more.

- That is so nice.

- Wow!

- Absolutely gorgeous.

- You've been here all day. You got loads! - I've had one.

- Don't lie to me! Don't lie!

THEY LAUGH

I'm just totally relieved that the seagulls have stayed away.

Maybe my kebab was a bit too spicy for them, but I can't get enough.

And I've heard there's a new local restaurant

hitting all the right notes.

If you're craving a fiery Jamaican hit in this little corner of Wales,

you need to head a couple of miles

down the seafront here to Prestatyn.

Chef Charlotte offers Jamaican dishes bursting with fresh,

authentic flavours in an upstairs venue that she decorated herself.

And it's called Back A Yard.

Yo, wagwan, Chef Charlotte! - Yes, bredren!

- How are you? - I'm good, thank you. How's yourself? - Good, thank you.

Wow, Back A Yard. What a beautiful, vibrant, colourful restaurant.

- Nice vibe, yeah? - Yeah. I've never been to Jamaica,

but it feels like I'm in Jamaica. - That's the plan.

- Tell me more about the Back A Yard, the vibe, the concept?

- So, Back A Yard stands for home.

Back at home in Jamaica, you'd be like, pon de yard, come to my yard,

back a yard. We've got the flavours, we've got the food.

It all joins together. - Love it. Love it.

Well, show me the kitchen then, before you get busy.

- I'll show you the kitchen, let's go. - Nice one, Chef!

If you could smell through the TV, I wouldn't need to tell you

that these stunning looking plates make my stomach rumble,

so I can't wait to see what Charlotte's got cooking.

Yes, I'm loving your kitchen, Chef. - Thank you, Chris.

- What have we got here? - So we're doing a jerk sauce today.

- You can't have Jamaican food without jerk. - You need the spice.

- Cool. Tell me a bit more about your heritage?

- It starts off with my Nana, really. She come over on the Windrush.

She's 88 now. - Love it. - Knows all the spices, knows how to do good food.

- And how's your jerk compared to your nain's jerk?

- No. Nana's the best. - The nains do it the best, yeah?

- The nains do it the best. The best home cooked food ever.

- Yeah, yeah. I'm sure you'll get close, though.

- Yeah, we're getting close.

- Jerk originated with the indigenous people of Jamaica.

The spices are a mix of thyme, garlic, cinnamon,

and the famous allspice, which is a dried berry,

also named Jamaica pepper.

The other integral ingredient is the Caribbean Scotch bonnet chilli,

which is seriously hot.

- I'll put it all in for you. - Yeah, go for it.

Do not take the seeds out. - Seeds are going in.

OK. Then we've got our ginger here. All that's going to go in there.

- Great. You don't have to peel it when you're doing this?

- You don't have to peel it. Do you know what, actually?

It's quite fun with jerk and Jamaican cooking

because they think, "Oh, my God, you're not peeling stuff."

But as long as it's washed and things, you use everything,

no waste. - No waste, love it! Oh!

In goes some browning, a popular Jamaican ingredient

made with caramelised sugar.

- I'm just going to add some water in.

- And the water will loosen everything up

to make a hard-hitting jerk sauce.

- Smells good, smells good, Chef.

- Oh, it smells so good. Jamaican me hungry! - Ah, yes!

- Have you heard that one before, yeah? - I have, yeah.

Jamaican me crazy, normally for me.

- Charlotte blitzes everything together

and pours it over the chicken wings.

Jerk can be used with any meat, but you just can't beat jerk chicken.

- So I've just got 15, 20 minutes cooking on these.

And I've got one more thing to cook for you, Chef. - Oh, yeah.

What's on next? - Ackee saltfish. - Woo!

- Jamaica's national dish. - Wow!

I haven't even come across the main ingredients of this dish, ackee.

Surprisingly, it's a fruit that looks similar to scrambled egg.

I've never had a scrambled egg fruit before!

- Tastes nothing like it. - Wow. It's creamy, delicate.

And then there's also the preserved, funky smelling salt cod.

I'm loving these quirky ingredients.

So, what age did you start cooking?

- So, I had a lot of inspiration from school, starting off in school.

I had ADHD and anxiety and not really any focus,

but my cooking class was the only focus that would keep me going.

- Awesome. - It really did help me. Helped me come out of my

comfort zone. - So that was like a coping mechanism, cooking?

- Cooking, yeah. Practical... - Yeah. - ..hands on.

And coming in here is like my safe zone. - Safe zone.

- That's one thing I've got for my ADHD and my anxiety -

my cooking, my kitchen, is my safe zone.

- You're an inspiration for anybody, anybody else at home that suffers

anxiety and... - Of course, yeah. And not to be scared to give it a go.

- You're living the dream now, yeah, living your dream?

- I am living the dream, I am. I'm living the dream, yeah.

- Wow. I think Charlotte's attitude is so spot-on.

And her spicy energy is just infectious.

Being able to try these unusual ingredients at a North Wales

restaurant is super cool. And I am ravenous.

Yes, Chef! - Here we go, Chef.

We've got the ackee saltfish with some Jamaican plantain,

and our jerk wings. - Awesome.

I'm going to go straight in on the saltfish. - Go on, you try.

- A bit of everything.

Wow! Wow. So many cool contrasts of textures.

Ackee is amazing, yeah? - Ackee's addictive, definitely. - Yeah.

It's an amazing dish, Chef. - Thank you so much.

- So good, but so hot.

For me, that's like, ten out of ten spice level.

What's that on the level for you? - Probably about seven out of ten.

- Only seven? - Yeah. - So you can go three more notches than that?

Crazy. - You're doing well. - Crazy!

Oh!

Yes. Jerk chicken wings.

- And they've got a lot of Scotch bonnet as well.

Just probably about the same amount.

So what do you think, then? Good flavours? - Stunning.

Sweet, sticky, fiery, fruity too.

You get the fruitiness from the Scotch bonnet. People think chilli

is just for heat, but it's like fruity flavour, yeah?

- Yeah, definitely. - Wings. You're saying cooking is your happy place?

- Yeah. - Eating wings is my happy place.

- Well, you're in the right place. Thank you!

- Yep, the jerk has truly tickled my taste buds,

so I'm going to use it in my final cookout at Rhyl Harbour,

where I've bought a spectacular catch.

With a Scotch bonnet and all the spices,

cooked slowly on coals,

this is a Jamaican-inspired, Rhyl-sourced jerk sea bass.

Look at this stunning, phenomenal local sea bass.

What a specimen.

But I do prefer the Welsh name, draenog y mor,

which translates to hedgehog of the sea.

And you'll see why. These barbs here.

Be careful when you're handling a bass. They are spiky.

So, hedgehog of the sea.

And it's a beautiful, amazing, robust white fish that can handle

a lot of flavour, a lot of fire and smoke.

So it's the perfect vessel for some Jamaican spice. Yeah!

But I start with the herbs, and it's thyme and bay leaves,

crushed with sea salt.

I throw in the garlic with chopped spring onions and of course,

a couple of Scotch bonnets, which are 40 times hotter

than your average jalapeno chilli.

And whatever you do now, do not rub your eyes, do not touch your face,

because it will burn, burn, burn!

Now I'm going to introduce some spice.

We've got some cinnamon here.

Ta-ta, cinnamon.

Then it's the allspice.

Some cumin as well.

And fresh grated ginger.

We're just looking for a coarse rub here.

You don't have to go super fine.

In goes the juice of two limes,

glug of oil,

some red wine vinegar,

and a few teaspoons of local honey.

Yes, the jerk is there.

Smells and looks amazing.

Let's have a taste.

Oh, ho-ho! It's got a kick. It's got a kick!

Woohoo! Blowing my socks off.

Now, when you're barbecuing whole fish, you need to make sure

it's super dry, OK?

The bass was already gutted when I bought it, so I can fill

the cavity with a jerk rub, leaving half of it for later.

Sliced limes go in before I can tie it all up.

DUB REGGAE MUSIC PLAYS

To finish, I drizzle oil over it so the sea salt sticks

to the skin, and it's ready for the fire.

It's touch-and-go that this will actually fit in my barbecue.

Ha, ha, ha! Just about!

So this is a low heat, OK? You don't want a fast, ferocious sizzle, OK?

Low and slow. Let everything cook nice, gentle.

Now, you know me, a bit of butter,

and the rest of this jerk mix.

Close the lid.

Every few minutes, I turn the fish and baste it generously

with the jerk butter.

Come on!

Draenog y mor...

..a-jerk.

Yes!

As I've got time, I'm also making some Jamaican escovitch.

This is a sharp and tangy recipe where vegetables are sauteed

with garlic, salt, allspice again, and black pepper.

But the essential ingredient is vinegar, as it gives everything

a tarty flavour.

Yes, the escovitch is ready.

The bass is looking, smelling, and feeling phenomenal.

Look how juicy that is. It's ready.

So let's plate up!

What a beauty!

Off come the strings and on goes some more jerk.

And then the vibrant escovitch.

And there you have it. Local wild line-caught sea bass, jerk vibe,

escovitch, on the harbour at Rhyl.

Oh, I'm so proud. So proud. Daddy holding his newborn baby,

showing it to the world. Jerk bass.

Oh, yes. The juicy white meat comes off the bone so easily.

Let's go.

Beautiful, flaky.

Mm!

It's such a clean, meaty, robust flavour.

Turbo-charged kick from the jerk!

Oh, look at the juiciness of that.

Ooh! That's a kick!

Yeah! Yo, Charlotte! Come get some jerk, fast!

- Wagwan, Chris? - Yeah!

Yep, as she was the spark for this recipe, I had to invite

Chef Charlotte for a taste.

So... - Looks amazing. - ..you inspired me.

You inspired me, your jerk. - You can see how juicy it is already.

Literally looks fab. - Yeah. - Good.

- I'm very nervous. Look! - Ah, shaking up!

Don't you worry, Chef, you've got this, you've got this.

- Look how easy this will come off the bone.

- And you've already had some, I guess? - Yeah, yeah, yeah,

I know it's fire!

- Yes, Chef. That is amazing.

- Is it fire for a Jamaican? - That is good. That's perfect.

You can taste it all. - How's the jerk, how's the jerk?

- The heat's nice. It's coming! - It's coming, yeah?!

- Yeah! - It's a creeper. - It's a creeper.

That's really, really good. - Oh, wow.

- Fabulous. - You've made me the happiest man in Rhyl today now.

- Well, you've made me the happiest lady. That is amazing.

- Yes, Charlotte! - Honestly. Thank you. You know how to do the jerk.

- Yes, yes!

Boom. Boom!

- The lime's good in it. A lot of lime on there. - Yeah, loads of lime.

- Loads of lime.

- Cooking in Rhyl has been an absolute blast.

The electric energy from the locals on the high street,

turning everybody onto goat meat.

The phenomenal seafood produce literally on the doorstep here.

It's been so special for me to revisit a place that holds

so many childhood memories.

And now I'm leaving with a whole new set of unforgettable moments.

Rhyl, diolch. You've been amazing.